In 2015, Curating Content is quickly replacing…

Link building was huge in the SEO world. Today, link building is still there but it has evolved into curating or copying of data. In the past, if someone wanted to reference a comment or two from your article, it was done by linking back to the original source. SEO is still important, but it may be occurring in the number of sites that are curating your content. It is possible that one your information is curated, it might not come back to your original website as it has in the past.

The key here is that sometimes these sites link aback to your site and sometimes they don’t. This may be disheartening to some, but I am just amazed at how far my articles are being shared and re-shared across the internet. The great part about this is that content is gaining traction in ways which we never thought possible before.

So if this type of action is happening, are there any tools to see where our content is going?

I use two approaches. Google Alerts is great for tracking information like my name and the site. In addition, I like to run advanced searches on Yahoo, Bing and Google and see if I can find my content appearing on different sites.

Is it critical that people go back to your website? I used to believe emphatically, yes! I have backed off this concept a bit. With the advent of Linkedin Publishing, now people can learn more about me and follow me without ever going to my blog site. I am ok with that. We live in a world where creating content for connecting is the key. If that connection is made on my website or another site, that is fine. The key is that you grow your influence so you become a recognizable name in a world of mass information.

For me it is about creating content on a starting platform like my website and letting it take off from there. It is no different than the process a daily newspaper. I never go back to the Newspaper company once I receive a daily paper. I may take the information that paper has and write more about it, make a decision based on the information I read. This is the same approach I need to take with respect to curating content.

I may see a reduction in links to my website, but I may see an increase in other areas like brand awareness, comments and followers. Do you want more subscribers to your site or more links? There is a difference and having subscribers is beginning to outweigh links.